Training Log Archive: iansmith

Misha, Jeremy, and I set to run Nadya's partner exercise on Shoebridge while Balter and Kseniya went for a long trail run. The partner exercise was originally designed for two, but we made modifications to accommodate three. We had a few moments of confusion and false starts, but it was still a satisfying workout. Training with friends was very pleasant; it would have been difficult to train so aggressively solo in the snow. I intermittently stopped my GPS and missed some splits, including the run back. This was a great close to an excellent weekend.

O-tervals at Silas Condict, course by the Zhyk. I deducted 23 minutes of rest time from the total. The snow was lighter than Harriman, but still in the neighborhood of 10 cm. It's amazing how quickly you heat up while running at maximum effort in the snow. Our gang consisted of Kseniya, Jeremy, Sagi, two adventure racing buddies of Jeremy's, Balter, Misha, Boris, Zan, and myself. We had three mass-start O-tervals and three interval starts where I was in the back with Boris. I never finished first, to my chagrin - beaten by Misha and Boris, but the training was very good and technical even with the speed impediments.

After an afternoon of playing games, Boris, Misha, and I set out to run a green course at Eagle Rock. Both because of the snow and the general pleasantness, we ran as a pack, alternating the lead. I focused on reading ahead and executing well, though I missed control 5 right and control 11 left; in both cases, I stayed too high. The course was streamered, which was very helpful. Misha was a mighty juggernaut, bounding away from us when he started his legs. We finished just as darkness was settling in. Physically, I started to noticeably wane in the second half of the exercise; running required increasing effort and concentration.

I was not pleased with my microroutes; Boris took a better route to 14 in particular. I wonder what the best way to train this is; perhaps I could repeat a set of legs several times to try to optimize the microroute - i.e. disentangling the macro-navigation and the micro-wiggling between obstacles. I suppose I'm describing a terrain loop.

C • Microroute 2

After missing my proposed 5 AM departure time by two hours (surprising basically no one), I arrived at Harriman at about 11:20. The gang was doing Alex's memory exercise on Hogencamp, so I set out to hang streamers for my control pick on Jackie Jones. As I was finishing on whatever the map is immediately south of Hogencamp, I ran into Boris, Misha, and Kseniya running the other direction. We picked up the streamers on Map-South-Of-Hogencamp before running back to parking. There was 10-20 cm of snow on the ground, so running was quite laborious. Still, it was good to get out on such an excellent map and delightful to run with company.

C • south of Hogencamp 2

Event: Thanksgiving Training Camp
 

Easy run around the neighborhood with a few quick bouts. I want to be strong like Zatopek. The ground was slippery with light snow, and I ran on salted areas whenever possible.

There was some discomfort in my left achilles. I am hoping the source of the problem is my Asics Sonomas; I will avoid using them for a week or so and see if the condition improves.

I went for an easy plod in the gentle snowfall of winter storm Cato. I developed a bit of a stomachache by the end for whatever reason. This is the debut of the winter route - a run insulated by buildings rather than along the more scenic and exposed river. I felt ponderous.